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HISTORY

OF

THE JEWS AND THEIR RELIGION.

BY THE REV. ISAAC LEESER,

PASTOR OF THE HEBREW PORTUGUESE CONGREGATION, PHILADELPHIA.

WHEN We endeavor to trace the origin of the civilization which rules with its benignant sway the mightiest nations of modern times, and none more so than the people inhabiting the United States of America, we shall soon discover that it must be ascribed to a great moral influence which had its birth in the gray ages of antiquity. For, disguise it as you will, seek with candor or prejudice, you must at length arrive at the conclusion, that the sources whence the modern rules of moral government are in the main drawn, is the same which refreshed the Chaldæan shepherd when he first felt moved to peril his all in the cause of that truth which his high-reaching intellect had discovered; that is to say, the truth of the existence of ONE Supreme, who created all and sustains in his mercy all that his power has called into being. This source of light we call divine revelation, and it is contained for us, who live at this day, in the pages of that priceless book which we call the BIBLE.

Long indeed, however, had this Bible, this source of truth, to struggle against the furious assaults of pagan superstition; long even after the establishment of Christianity was the leaven of ancient usages too powerful for the simple truths of the Word of God; but with all this, triumph is gradually perching upon the banners of divinely illuminated reason; and with the certain, though slow, progress of mankind in the path of science and enlightenment, it is not to be doubted that pure religion

will also become more and more the rule of life for the sons of man. There may be, and in truth are, many retrogressions; we find indeed that from some unforeseen causes, such as luxury, devastating wars, the irruption of barbarous nations, mankind have appeared, and to this day do appear, to deteriorate in certain periods; but upon the whole every age becomes wiser than its predecessor through the light of experience and by a knowledge of the evils which others had to endure. The storms through which civilization has periodically to pass, purify it from the stagnant air which entire repose would necessarily create around it; for it has to share the fate with every other gift which has been bestowed upon mankind, of being endangered if it is not constantly watched, and guarded against the enemies which have been wisely placed around our happiness, that we may not fall into inaction and effiminacy.

The Jews, and their predecessors the Israelites, have been always regarded with suspicion, and not rarely with aversion, by those who hold opinions different from them; but if an enquirer were to look with the eye of truth into the source of this suspicion and of this aversion, he would be disappointed, for the honor of mankind, to find that both are without sufficient ground to warrant their being indulged in by any person who can lay the least claim to intelligence. One would suppose that the Judæophobia must be ow

ing to some monstrous doctrines which the Jewish religion contains, which would render its professors dangerous to the state as unsafe citizens or rebellious subjects, by teaching them to imbrue their hands in blood, or to plunder the unwary of their possessions. Perhaps calumny has asserted these things; perhaps ignorance may have imagined that this could be so. But how stands the case?

In the days when the wealth of many nations was not estimated by the gold and silver in their houses, and by the ships which bore their products upon the face of the ocean, but by the multitude of their herds and flocks and of "the ships of the desert" the patient and burdensome camels, and the toilsome asses, and the number of their household: there arose a man in his beginning as simple as his countrymen, as unostentatious as any shepherd of them all. He was called Abraham; and lived in that fruitful country once known as Chaldæa. Around him every one seemed to have forgotten the existence of ONE Creator; for gross idolatry, or the worship as gods of things which have no power to save, was the prevailing vice of mankind. It is well to inquire, whether notions of right and wrong based upon such premises can be of real utility to man? whether a belief in gods full of human vices, according to the ideas even of their worshippers, can inspire the virtues which are the basis of true civilization? The candid reasoner will answer in the negative; for debasing conceptions of worship will naturally debase the understanding, and one is but too apt to excuse in himself what he discovers or fancies to exist in the being to whom he looks up with respect and adoration. This being premised, it will be readily conceded that at the appearance of Abraham the pervading popular opinions were unfriendly to the advancement of civilization; and that therefore his promulgating contrary views, granting that he did so, was no evidence of his being an enemy to the general welfare. Let us then see, what did Abraham do? Disgusted with the follies surrounding him on all sides, convinced that the works of human hands were not proper objects of worship: he resolved in his heart to look from the creature to the Cause,

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and thus he brought himself to adore the Creator; since there is every where apparent the same principle as the foundation and origin of all that exists. Full of this sublime thought he left his native land, his father's roof, and wandered to the smiling country of the South, where the most horrible superstition had established itself in the shape of human sacrifices to the devouring Moloch. It was here he proclaimed the "God who is the living God and everlasting King," and exhibited in his conduct that neighborly love, that regard for justice and righteousness, which compelled even the followers of a senseless system, if system it may be called, to look upon him who had come among them a stranger, who had made publicly known his attachment to a worship which they knew not, as a prince of God in the midst of them." What now were the principles of Abraham? Simply these: first, the belief in the existence of one God, who made heaven and earth; secondly, obedience to the dictates of this God; thirdly, accountability to this God for all deeds by intelligent creatures; fourthly, charity and neighborly love; and fifthly, the exercise of evenhanded justice. We will not insist that there are no other principles involved in the doctrines of Abraham; but we give these points merely to convey a general idea of what he did in the fulfilment of his mission. Let us now examine briefly the effect such a system must have, if generally adopted and generally carried out in practice. the belief in a superior Power there cannot be imagined a being great enough to exercise any control over the actions of man; the Being to be adored must be eternal, universal, and uniform. Now precisely such a God Abraham proclaimed. The God of the scriptures is from the beginning; He made all that exists; He is of unending endurance, surviving all that can ever appear in the world; He is in every imaginable part of the creation-no space can limit Him, no obstacles can bar out his presence; and finally, He is uniform-there are no disturbing causes which can diminish his power, weaken his energies, or abridge his wisdom; there are no discoverable means to divide Him into parts, or to add aught to his greatness,

felicity, or perfection, for every thing is it contradicted every thing which was ashis, and existing only by his will and suf- sumed as true by so many interested perferance. This God, according to Abra- sons, and offered to no one individual any ham's doctrines, has given certain instruc- prominence among those who submitted tions to his creatures, which, since He is to its rule. Nevertheless it is not to be the Source of wisdom, must be necessarily doubted, that the entire system of modern wise, useful and immutable in their ten- civilization is based upon the early dawndencies and nature, Farther, the Creator ing thereof in the person of Abraham, expects that those who have a knowledge which we have sketched as above. Alof his enactments will, under pain of ac- though the constitutions of the various countability, and with a certainty of re- countries, where an enlightened liberty compense, endeavor to obey strictly what prevails, do not in all cases recite a bethey are certified to be the will of their lief in the existence of one God and a subGod. Then again these enactments, as jection to his laws: they in the main acfar as mankind are concerned, demand knowledge these ideas in legislation and that every man shall love his neighbor, jurisprudence no less than in domestic life. and dispense to all, whom he can reach, In short, the Abrahamic discoveries, so to those acts of kindness which he himself term them, in the ethical sciences, have would desire to receive in the hour of his become the standard of public liberty, the need. But such a system would be in- safeguard of justice, and the prop of pricomplete without the superaddition of that vate life, wherever science has succeeded principle with which the Creator governs in dispelling the reign of ignorance, and the world, and this principle we call where an enlightened worship has chased "Justice;" this therefore too was engraft- away the dark clouds of superstition. ed upon Abraham's creed, and he is prais- Under many appellations the God of ed for the certainty that he would com- Abraham is invoked; climes the farthest mand his house after him to exercise this asunder send forth praises to the Everprinciple in their intercourse with others. | living; and prayers ascend to Him from That Abraham was viewed with preju- Ethiopia's sons and from the children of dice by those who profited by the super- the Andes, no less than from the fair Cirstition of the times, is but too probable; cassian race; and the mighty Name is that the priests who kept the people in ig- indeed glorious among the Gentiles. norance with regard to the true nature of the Deity should hate a man who cast, so to say, their idols to the ground, by informing every one who came to him of the pure ideas he had of the Creator, is as certain as that the doers of evil hate those whose conduct is a perpetual rebuke to their iniquity; that the tyrants who governed by debasing the mind of their subjects, who caused themselves to be looked upon as superior to the mass of mankind, did not relish the presence of the philosopher whose system rendered all men equal in obedience, in hope, as creatures of the same Father, admits of not the smallest doubt, for the general acknowledgment of these views would, if not destroy the power of kings, greatly circumscribe the same, and make men jealous of their rulers. We do not won der, therefore, that the new civilization, as we will term it, could not advance very rapidly in the then state of the world;

When Moses appeared on earth to accomplish what Abraham had commenced, it was not a new theory which was proclaimed, but a confirmation of the ancient covenant. The idea of belief was not enlarged, because there could be no addition to the simplicity and truth of its first inception; the creed of Abraham was one God, sole, uniform, eternal; and Moses could not add to or diminish from this unchangeable truth. What then was Moses' mission? It was the establishment of a consistent code of laws in consonance with the acknowledged universality of the Almighty power. The Lord, in the code of Moses, became the chief of a civil state, in which the people were citizens and equals under the banner of obedience to the divine will; there was no one equal to the Lord, there was no one above the reach of the laws. Whoever was raised to dignity among his people, held a power delegated from on high with the concur

deeds to the observance of many ceremonials and festive institutions, which by their constant recurrence should as constantly remind the people of the causes, why they were ordained. Let us instance the Passover. The household of every believing Israelite is purified from all leaven; new utensils, different from those in general use, are procured; bread of a different nature than that used during the other parts of the year is introduced; and with the first evening of the festivals peculiar ceremonies are observed, which from their striking nature will always arrest the attention. Imagine now an inquisitive child following with eager eye his parents in their various acts of purifying and arranging the household, in their observance of the ceremonies relating to the feast, and he will naturally ask: "What is this service unto you?" And then, what a noble theme has the intelligent and pious father for dwelling on the goodness of the Lord, how He in his might broke the chain of captive forefathers-how He humbled the idols and their worshippers-how He proved his almighty power before the eyes of unbelieving men-how He demonstrated that he alone is the Creator and Ruler of the universe-and how he ordained a law of duties and observances, inasmuch as "He commanded us to do all these things, that it may be well with us all the days, and to keep us alive, as we see this day." In brief, the ceremonies, as Mendelssohn observes in his Jerusalem, are the constant topics of living instruction, which by exciting the attention of the inquirer, afford a constant theme and an ever-recurring oc casion to expatiate upon the noble truths of revealed religion, to prevent them being misunderstood by the fixedness and obscurity of outward symbols, and of being lost by want of requisite memorials.

rence and sufferance of the governed; | bound the recollection of these mighty and when the ruler ceased to shape his course by the statutes which had been prescribed for the government of the whole people, he at once lost the authority which he had abused, at times by direct divine interference, at times by the simple action of the people; of this the scriptures give so many examples that it is needless to quote them here, where we are confined to a very limited space. But in connexion with the civil code based on religion, there was another object in the legislation of Moses; and this was the uniting of the belief in the unity of the divine Essence with outward, tangible rites, which should ever remind the people to whom they had been given of the truth which they had inherited from their fathers. It is obvious that neither pictures nor the works of the chisel could effect this great end. For in the commemorative works of art, to be thus produced, the Deity also, the principal agent in all these transactions, would have to be represented; and how could this be done? Where could we possibly find a likeness or an image to figure Him by? He, who is without bodily conformation, without outward shape, could He be shadowed forth by the puerile invention of genius,—puerile, when compared with his greatness and purity? And besides, admit that it were possible; still how would it have comported with divine wisdom to have permitted symbolical representations of his Being, at a time when images were the objects of adoration to all the world? Would not the recipients of the law also have soon lapsed into the folly of venerating the symbols, instead of the Deity which they personified? Wisely, therefore, did the law proscribe graven images or any representation, "because that we saw no figure whatever on the day the Lord spoke with us at Horeb from the midst of the fire." On the other hand, acts once past fade from the memory of the recipients and actors themsevles; how much more is it but too certain that succeeding ages will not know of the great things that were done before their days. How beautifully therefore did the Lord provide for the remembrance of the great acts which He did for Abraham's sons when they went forth from Egypt. He

In consequence of this union of doctrine and acts the Israelitish people became contradistinguished from all other portions of mankind, by a peculiarity which exposed them at once to the animadversion and suspicion of the world. They were men who believed not in the gods; they had no images to represent what they worshipped, and they refused to mimgle

by marriage and social enjoyment with those who believed not in their code. Hence there sprung up a species of repugnance of the heathen towards the Israelites; they accused them of atheism, because they rejected a plurality of gods; they were shocked at what was conceived their impiety, because they honored not images of the divinities of the world; and they charged them with unsociality, because they could not, consistently with their faith, mingle over the wine cup and the festive board with their gentile neighbors. It is needless to argue, at this late day, the folly of these views. The worship of one God is surely no atheism; the absence of images is no impiety; and the ceremonial restrictions upon the Israelites have been long since justly regarded as the main props for the upholding of the monotheistic doctrines of Abraham and Moses; they preserved entire a people to whom the truth had been confided by the Creator himself; and nation after nation has more or less taken up the same belief, and followed as divine the precepts which the code of Israel contains. It is not to be denied that the Jews themselves have not duly honored their divine law; they have often been rebellious; they have frequently thrown off the yoke; they have again and again walked in the ways of the heathen; still, will any one deny that they were the first, and for a long time the only, nation who believed truly in the Creator alone? who possessed and have transmitted to the world at large a code of laws which is the best safeguard of liberty? the only true standard of justice? Look at the decalogue! it is called the moral constitution of the world; and where do you find precepts so just, so simple, so cogent, embraced in so few words? Admit they are divine, (certainly we do not claim to have invented them;) still, who possessed them before all other nations? Do we then boast unjustly, when we aver that our law is the fountain of modern civilization that whatever was good in heathen ideas had to be purified by the legislation of Moses! Surely we are correct in this assertion; and sure we are that the enlightened Christian and philosopher will gladly admit the truth of a position which scarcely admits of a doubt.

If heathen communities then looked with disdain and contempt upon the unsociable Israelites and accused them of impiety: a man acquainted with the operations of the human heart, will say that their ignorance of revelation was a natural cause of this aversion for a system which, in every point, contradicted their free notions in belief and conduct; since heathenism allowed any addition to the catalogue of their deities, ad infinitum, and permitted all those acts of licentiousness which disgraced their Olympus. But what can Christians allege for continuing that silly prejudice which had its birth in periods of darkness? Do they believe in the existence of a Being, the holiest, the purest, the best that the imagination can conceive, who is the author of all? So do we. Do they believe in the REVELATION of the Most High? So do we. Do they believe themselves accountable for all acts done by them in contravention to the declared will of God? So do we. Do they hold to the sublime aphorism, "Love God above all, and thy neighbor like thyself?" Só do we. Is there not sufficient agreement in our respective systems for us all to meet on common ground, and prove that we are indeed children of a common Parent? servants of the same God? "But no," say the bigots, "the Jews do not agree with us in all points; they believe not in a mediator, they reject our Messiah, and hold themselves bound by a religion of ceremonial works, long since abrogated, at the coming of Christ; hence we must endeavor to convert them, or condemn them to the pains of an everlasting damnation for their unbelief." The premises are indeed true: we totally reject the idea of a mediator, either past or to come; we reject him whom the Christians call their Messiah; and we assert that for our part the law is of the same binding force as it was in the beginning of its institution. But what has that to do with the prejudice of the world against us? Are our views so monstrous as to excite the wrath of the world against us? Let us see: we assert that the Diety is one and alone; that hence no mediator, or an emanation from the Creator, is conceivable. But why should this be a cause of prejudice against us, since the evident words of the Bible

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